A look at economic developments around the globe

The Associated Press, None

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:

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LONDON – The 16-country eurozone has officially joined the United States and Japan out of recession, after figures showed its economy grew by 0.4 percent in the third quarter from the previous three-month period. However, the rise reported by the EU's statistics office Eurostat was not as large as the 0.6 percent most economists had been predicting, as growth in major economies fell short of forecasts. With a rebound in exports partially offset by weak household spending, Germany's economy grew by 0.7 percent and France's by 0.3 percent. Still, the third quarter rise in eurozone output was the first in six quarters and brings to an end Europe's sharpest recession since World War II. Though the eurozone's banks were not at the epicenter of the financial crisis that triggered the global economic downturn, the region suffered as demand for its high-value products fell off a cliff.

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LONDON – European stock markets recouped earlier losses thanks to solid earnings reports from two of the United States' leading retailers that boosted confidence about the pace of economic recovery. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed 0.4 percent higher at 5,296.38, Germany's DAX added 0.4 percent to 5,686.83, and France's CAC-40 slipped 0.1 percent to 3,806.01. In midday trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.8 percent at 10,276.07, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.6 percent to 1,093.94. The gains came in the wake of better-than-expected earnings from teen clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and an improved outlook from department-store chain J.C. Penney Co. Without the help of the consumer, who accounts for around 70 percent of the U.S. economy, any global economic recovery will be modest.

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HELSINKI – Finland's economy shrank by a record 11.6 percent in September from a year earlier, the sharpest fall yet in the current recession in the export-dependent Nordic country, the government statistics agency said. Gross domestic product decreased 2.1 percent in September from August, Statistics Finland said. The Finnish economy has shown negative GDP figures since September 2008 when year-on-year growth was 2.8 percent. The previous record drop in monthly GDP was in May when it contracted 10.6 percent compared to May 2008.

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BRUSSELS – The European Union's biggest business federation said it was worried that a new customs union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus could introduce a new trade tax damaging to European exports. BusinessEurope said it believed that the three nations would on Jan. 1, 2010, apply higher trade charges, extending and making permanent export taxes that Russia initially introduced on a temporary basis. BusinessEurope said this would violate pledges by the Group of 20 rich and developing nations to shun new trade barriers and would harm the trade and investment climate in the three countries.

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HONG KONG – Hong Kong's economy expanded slightly in the third quarter as its financial services and tourism sectors recovered, even though demand from Western countries remained weak, the government said. Government economists also revised upward their forecast for the entire year, predicting the local economy will contract by 3.3 percent in 2009 – up from the previous forecast of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent in August. Hong Kong's gross domestic product inched up 0.4 percent in the July-September period on a seasonally adjusted quarter-to-quarter basis, government economist Helen Chan said in a statement.

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SINGAPORE – Asian economies must handle their monetary and currency policies carefully to avoid unleashing a wave of potentially destabilizing inflation, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said. The U.S. and European economies, which are barely starting to recover from the global meltdown, are less at risk, but in Asia the massive liquidity flowing into regional markets could push asset prices up dangerously high, Zoellick told a business forum on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Stimulus spending and loosened credit and monetary policies have helped spur a recovery in the region, especially in India and in China, which clocked growth at 8.9 percent in the third quarter.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A U.N.-led meeting in Doha struck a deal under which anti-corruption inspectors from the United Nations and independent groups could review public funds in countries around the world in an effort to track and return money looted by political leaders. According to the head of the U.N.'s anti-corruption office, the pact – reached after five days of talks in Qatar's capital – is an important step to combat the illegal flow of public assets to money laundering networks and tax havens. But watchdog groups complain that much of the new agreement is voluntarily and doesn't go far enough to expose corrupt regimes.